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Boulder firm lands several instruments on British blimp

'Cloud Lab' crossing country in atmospheric study for BBC documentary

By Charlie Brennan Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
10/06/2013 02:00:00 PM MDT

Cloud Lab,? a 68-foot-tall blimp, is making it s way slowly across America with a team of British scientists studying hurricane formation, insect life, bats and the relationship between diverse ecosystems and weather. Aboard the craft -- the gondola alone is 38 feet long and 8 1/2 feet wide -- are four instruments built by Boulder-based Droplet Measurement Technologies.
Photo courtesy? Jim McQuaid?
(
Photo courtesy: by Jim McQuaid
)

Four instruments from a Boulder company specializing in cutting-edge technology for airborne measurements of aerosol and cloud particles are included in a group of devices along for a slow trip across America on board what is billed as the world's largest airship.

The project is a venture sponsored by BBC Two, a blimp ferrying a team of British scientists across the United States from Orlando, Fla., to Big Sur, Calif. For a 2014 documentary with the working title of "Cloud Lab," the researchers are spending a month studying how hurricanes form, insect life, bats and the relationship between diverse ecosystems and weather.

The blimp, limited to no more than about 1,000 feet in altitude, must track well south of the higher peaks of the Rocky Mountains. It is therefore floating across the southern tier of the United States, on a trajectory that should take it over Las Cruces, N.M., and Flagstaff, Ariz., before hitting California. Late this week, the blimp was passing over Texas.

"Just as we finish investigating hurricanes in the Gulf onboard @BBCCloudLab, Tropical Storm Karen arrives," read one of its most recent tweets.

Boulder's Droplet Measurement Technologies has provided four instruments that are currently flying on the Cloud Lab blimp. Because the blimp can accommodate only a limited payload, just a few instruments were offered a spot on board.

"This is a unique opportunity to deploy our instruments," Greg Kok, DMT's research and development director, wrote in an email. "It is exciting for us to see our customers collect data, but this is an opportunity where we can really make measurements and also work with some of the data."

The four DMT instruments on Cloud Lab are its Cloud Droplet Probe 2, which measures small cloud droplets, the PAX and SP2, which measure black carbon -- a major contributor to global warming -- and its Wideband Integrated Bioaerosol Sensor 4A, which detects bioaerosols such as mold, fungi and pollens.

DMT recently had occasion to use the WIBS 4A instrument in its own office on Central Avenue, after an inch or so of floodwater invaded its office space.

"It was interesting" to use the sophisticated mold detection device in the company's own work space, said Meg Tilton, DMT's director for technical communications. "It did report that (the mold level) was twice the level of the temporary office I'd moved in to. But it wasn't so bad that I couldn't move back in. They sprayed it with sporicidin. It's nothing where I was concerned with respiratory problems."

But it is the science occurring onboard the blimp, through use of DMT's equipment, that has the Boulder company excited.

"The data belongs to the people doing the project," said Tilton, "not the people who are loaning the instruments. But we will basically get to see the data later on. It's such a great data set, and they have poured the money into doing it."

In his email, Kok -- currently in Europe -- wrote, "The unique thing is that the data will be collected at low altitude, and at a slow speed, less than 50 mph. This will provide a high-resolution picture of the atmosphere.

"With traditional aircraft sampling, most of the measurements are made at higher altitudes, and much faster speeds. With these measurements, we are getting a high-resolution data set of the boundary layer atmosphere which is directly in contact with people."

Although Cloud Lab is a British project, it has several American government partners, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Kok said that, despite those agencies' involvement, the current government shutdown should not pose any problems for Cloud Lab.

"The data collection is being done by scientists from the UK with collaboration from U.S. universities and private company scientists," Kok wrote. "NOAA will be involved with some of the data analysis, but this will be after the data is collected and hopefully the government will be operational by then."

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